This invention relates to systems and methods for interfacing product information, such as is typically found in vendor catalogs that are provided to customers, and requisition/purchasing systems and methods that may use the results of searches of product information.
There are a number of known requisition/purchasing systems that manage and process requisitions and purchase orders. One such system is the Fisher Scientific Requisition and Inventory Management System ("Fisher RIMS"), described in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 08/042,168, filed Apr. 2, 1993, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,712,989 on Jan. 28, 1998, and assigned to Fisher Scientific Company of Pittsburgh, Pa., the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. As its title suggests, Fisher RIMS can also manage inventory. In the Fisher RIMS system, requisition records are created from a real-time interaction between a host computer (generally a mainframe) and a local computer (generally at a customer site), with each computer using data from its own respective database of inventory in conjunction with information entered by a customer service representative operating the local computer. By accessing its respective database, each computer can build and transmit to the other computer communications blocks of data relating to a particular requisition of an item in inventory (or to the management of the inventory itself). The other computer can then use the received data to continue processing of the requisition. Thus, requisition records are created from a real-time interaction between the host and local computers, with each computer using data from its respective database in conjunction with information entered by a customer service representative operating the local computer.
Other requisition/purchasing systems can be grouped broadly into four classes. First, requisition management systems licensed to corporations purchasing for their own use include ORION software (from Medical Management Systems), ENTERPRISE software (from ESI), and NOVA software (from Johnson & Johnson). Second, there exist systems provided by distributors for transmitting orders to them in proprietary formats. Such systems include QUICKLINK (from Abbott), ASAP system (from Baxter) and LIGHTNING system (from Fisher Scientific). Third, software packages licensed by software developers to customers and/or suppliers enable the transmission of customer purchase orders as EDI purchase orders (in ANSI X.12 format). Examples of such systems include ON-CALL EDI (from TSI International), EDI Express software (from General Electric Information Services) and GETRAN software (from Sterling Software). Fourth, comprehensive business management packages such as REAL WORLD software (from Real World Corporation of Concord, N.H.) and ASK software (from The ASK Group) contain a purchasing module to create replenishment orders when inventoried items fall below restocking points. The same purchasing module can also be used to place spot orders for products keyed in by the customer's purchasing personnel.
None of these known requisition/purchasing systems (including Fisher RIMS), however, provides a capability for a user readily to search for and locate information about the products that may be requisitioned and ordered in connection with the requisition/purchasing system. They also do not provide the capability for a user to search a database containing two or more vendor catalogs, and then to transfer information about the items selected as a result of such searches into a requisition/purchasing system such as Fisher RIMS for building a requisition for the catalog items.
Computer systems that are capable of searching databases containing a product catalog of a particular vendor, for example on CD-ROM, are also known. Such systems can search for user requested information about products and create orders which the user can save, print or, in some cases, facsimile directly to a vendor. The known computer systems for searching vendor catalogs are limited in that only one such vendor catalog is accessible to a user at any given time. They are also limited in that they can only create an order within the particular vendor catalog database. They cannot source items to be requisitioned from a database containing multiple catalogs or interact with a requisition/purchasing system (such as Fisher RIMS) to create a purchase order or orders including the items located from that sourcing operation.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide an electronic sourcing system that provides a means for transferring information between a requisition/purchasing system that may use the results of a search of product information and a means for searching large volumes of product information such as would be included in a vendor product catalog or catalogs.
It would also be desirable to provide such an electronic sourcing system that is capable of searching a database containing at least two vendor product catalogs for product information.
It would further be desirable to provide such an electronic sourcing system that is capable of searching a database of catalog items contain in at least two vendor product catalogs, selecting particular items located, and transferring information about the items selected (for example, a catalog number and a vendor identifier, such as vendor name and/or vendor number) to a requisition/purchasing system for inclusion in a requisition generated by the system.
It would further be desirable to provide an electronic sourcing system that is capable of creating an order list including items located as the result of a catalog database search and transferring that order list of desired catalog items to a requisition/purchasing system for inclusion of the catalog items as entries in a requisition generated by the system.